Imagine you could start over. Build a new school from scratch,
untethered to the past and inspired by ground-breaking programs like
Tech Geometry at Benson and Hilhi's alliance with Mercy Corps.

Armed
with a $482 million construction bond, Portland Public Schools has that
opportunity, and there's growing concern the district is blowing it at
Roosevelt High.

"Very bluntly," says Paul Anthony, a Roosevelt
parent and the chief financial officer at a Beaverton financial-services company, "we are at
the last possible moment before everything is set in stone, and
Roosevelt will be screwed for the next 50 years."

Out with the old (Roosevelt High) ... Nicole Dungca

What has "lit people's hair on fire," Anthony says, is the lack of space allocated in the Roosevelt redesign for career technical education (CTE).

"Research proves that
quality CTE programs will increase the graduation rate, decrease the
drop-out rate and engage students in career-focused learning," says Ron
Dexter, who directs the undergraduate and Masters' CTE programs at
Concordia University.

"Students gain confidence. They get to
compete. They're motivated. And many are earning college credit by
their junior year in high school."

Showcase programs are readily accessible. That Tech Geometry class at Benson is erecting housing at Dignity Village. At Hillsboro High School, Don Domes connected students to Mercy Corps' "Designs with the Other 90%," crafting water pumps and solar-cooking units for the 90 percent of the world's population that survives on less than $2 a day.

PPS understands the concept. In January, the district scored a $346,000 "CTE Revival" grant from the Oregon Department of Education. In the grant application,
Jeanne Yerkovich, the district's career pathway coordinator, argues
that thanks to the $482 million bond, "the opportunity to provide all
students with knowledge and skills through experimental learning ... is
within reach."

And as Roosevelt boosters are quick to point out, the Franklin High school redesign
provides tons of room -- 14,000 square feet -- for the CTE "maker
space" that allows students to get their hands dirty in the assembly
process.

"At Franklin, you have teachers who want to grow the
program. They've been helping the squeaky wheels," says Tom Koehler, a
member of the Portland School Board. "Because of pressure from the
community and teachers, those architects have figured it out.

"Now, we have to figure it out at Roosevelt."

Roosevelt
is one of four high schools -- along with Grant, Lincoln and Jefferson
-- that has no certified CTE program. There is no Don Domes on the North
Portland campus, championing the idea that "when kids make real things,
their eyes light up," and far fewer engaged parents in the neighborhood.

"If the community isn't used to having something, and doesn't have
advocates fighting for it, it's tougher to make it happen," the school board's Bobbie Regan said.

Or
as Domes puts it, "I've seen a lot of building design, and building
design is based on who has the political capital for what happened in
the past. The question should be what will happen in the future."

Anthony and Dennis Phillips, a retired civil engineer at Bonneville Power, contend that the preliminary design by Bassetti Architects
limits the "maker space" in the new Roosevelt High School to a
2,000-square-foot metal-and-wood shop and a separate 2,000-square-foot
STEM lab.

Phillips, who has attended most of the Roosevelt Design Advisory
Group meetings, says the district is basing that allotment on misguided forecasts of "student interest. Student interest? When I was
that age, I wanted to smoke pot
and skip school.

"You won't be able to turn around in that space."

Domes
agrees. He has four 3-D printers in his 3,600-square foot drafting
classroom, and Hilhi students "are packed in there like sardines."

Roosevelt
Principal Charlene Williams contends the redesign features another
9-10,000 square feet of "career-related learning space," including the
small-business lab and theater. "I want bigger and better everything,"
she notes, even as she reminds me that Franklin will have more students (1,700-student capacity) than Roosevelt (1350).

But
critics of the plan argue that the redesign is being driven not by
Williams and the RHS administration, but by C.J. Sylvester, the
district's chief operating officer, and a philosophy revealed in the
minutes of the DAG's Feb. 13 meeting:

"Franklin High School
currently has an established shop program, so the size of Roosevelt's
Enhanced Electives is influenced by other specific needs the school has
that take up square footage."

Which means the district will resort to busing Roosevelt's most enthusiastic CTE students to southeast Portland?

"All
the things that give young people a reason to stay in school, things
that are proven to improve student performance, are being ridiculously
limited," says Anthony, who also chairs the Portland City Club's forums
committee on education.